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Page 386
who were they? She had not had time to discuss the details with Sir Guy. There was a limit to how often one could go to market and, worse, each meeting increased the chance that someone who had heard Sir Guy's tale would see their meetings and guess the source of the rumors he was spreading.
One more fruitless sweep and Alinor could look no longer. Ian drew her gaze like a magnet. A tense moment when she could not find him at his old position melted into relief when she saw him safely engaged with Albini. A hysterical giggle rose in her throat as her own words echoed in her mind. Imagine calling a duel with Albini being safely engaged! Albini was a clever and powerful warrior. He had had Simon's respect, and that was not easily come by. In the heat of a spirited combat, Ian might well be severely injured. But not killed, Alinor thought. Albini would be no part of that kind of treachery, even though he was of five or six different minds about whom he would support in any political crisis.
There was a particularly ferocious passage of arms, which brought both Albini's destrier and Ian's to their haunches so that the horses were nearly as much engaged in battle as the men. Alinor sobbed aloud once as a cloud of dust arose and obscured the combatants. Perhaps it was not safe for Ian to be engaged with Albini. All his attention would be concentrated on so worthy an opponent. The fierceness of the action would conceal him from his friends. His back would be naked to anyone despicable enough and sufficiently lost to honor to attack him.
Alinor knew that was a silly idea even as she thought it. No matter how concentrated Ian and Albini were, they were too much men of war not to see someone attacking from behind. In any case, the very violence of the duel drew the attention of the fighters nearby, so that some, by mutual consent, suspended their own

 
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